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Kray twins' plush mansion BACK on market with marked-down price – as chilling secrets unearthed
The brothers fell in love with the house as child evacuees in WWII
CURSE OF THE KRAYS Kray twins' plush mansion BACK on market with marked-down price – as chilling secrets unearthed
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THE country hideaway of notorious East End gangsters the Kray twins has gone back on the market - at a dramatically marked-down price.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray bought The Brooks in Bildeston near Hadleigh, Suffolk, for just £11,000 in 1967.
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The criminal duo bought The Brooks in Bildeston, Suffolk, for just £11,000 in 1967
Credit: Bedfords/East Anglia News Service
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London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray refresh themselves with a cup of tea
Credit: Getty
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The brothers' home is back on the market for the marked-down price of £1.5million
Credit: Bedfords/East Anglia News Service
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The country mansion features seve bedrooms and is set in six acres of grounds
Credit: Bedfords/East Anglia News Service
The pair purchased the seven-bed county mansion at the height of their reign of terror as crime lords in the East End of London – as a peaceful home for their mum and a weekend bolt-hole.
It was listed in July 2022 for an asking price of £2.25 million, later reduced to £2 million in December of the same year.
However, the property failed to sell and was eventually taken off the market.
While prices across the county have since rocketed, the Krays' former property is now back on the market for a cut-price £1.5 million - £750,000 cheaper than the original July 2022 asking price.
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The criminal pair bought the secluded seven-bedroom property in 1967.
The brothers claimed to have first fallen in love with the house in the posh village of Bildeston when they were sent to live in the nearby market town of Hadleigh as child evacuees from London's East End during World War II.
Selling agents Savills describe the £1.5 million house as 'a substantial and flexible period property with separate accommodation and versatile outbuildings tucked away in the village and comes with six-acre of grounds.'
However, villagers say they remember that police searched the property and even dug up part of the garden in a search for bodies and arrested the brothers in May 1968, after the brutal murder of gang member Jack 'The Hat' McVitie - for which Reggie Kray was later convicted.
The crime bosses stayed regularly at the house, which is just off the High Street in Bildeston and they were there on the weekend before they and 15 members of their gang were arrested in May 1968.
The brothers were handed life sentences in 1969 after cops swooped on the gang just days after they had taken a break at their Suffolk home.
Ronnie was convicted of the murder of fellow gangster George Cornell who was shot dead in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in 1966 and Reggie convicted of the murder of Jack "The Hat" McVitie in 1967.
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In a 1989 interview with author Robin McGibbon, Ronnie recalled how he and Reggie had enjoyed carefree childhood days as evacuees in Suffolk.
He told how they had gone tobogganing, scrumping for apples and played cowboys and Indians while living at East House Lodge, Hadleigh, with a woman called Mrs Styles.
Ronnie said in a taped interview: "It was the first time we ever went to the county and we got to like the country."
He added: "The quietness, the peacefulness of it, the fresh air, nice scenery, nice countryside - different from London."
After spending two years in the countryside, the twins returned to their family home in Bethnal Green because their mum, Violet, wanted them to be close to their grandmother and other relatives.
But the brothers pledged to return and buy a house in Suffolk when they had made enough money.
They were true to their word and splashed out on The Brooks when their crime empire was at its height.
Speaking about the purchase, Ronnie said: "Later on we was able to buy the mansion and the cottage for 11 grand."
When asked for the date of the purchase, he replied: "Just before we was arrested... It would be worth a million pound today. We had to have it all decorated and redone up."
The house was last on the market three years ago when the initial asking price was reduced from £2.25 million to £2 million.
The Brooks is described as 'an exceptional unlisted period house of elegant proportions and versatile accommodation and believed to date back to the 16th-century but extended and 'gentrified' in the early 18th-century with later Victorian alterations.
The three-storey accommodation extends to 4,000 sq ft and boasts a large reception hall with attractive staircase to the first floor, ornate stained-glass interior windows and large cloakroom.
The drawing room has a door to the gardens while the dining room has a large bay window and wood-burning stove.
There is an Aga cooker in the Shaker-style kitchen as well as a study/hobbies room with an arched window overlooking the walled courtyard and a utility and laundry room.
Upstairs there are five bedrooms and two bathrooms and on the second floor are two more double bedrooms.
The agents say the property is in the middle of the village but provides 'a mature, rural environment to enjoy the copious levels of wildlife and tranquillity.'
Outside there is a large range of red-brick-and-flint outbuildings – suitable for a workshop or studio or conversion to holiday lets.
There is also a detached staff cottage that needs renovation as well as garage, with neighbouring workshop and store, with covered store/stable adjoining.
Older villagers remember the notorious brothers but say they were always friendly and hospitable and generous in buying drinks in the village's three pubs.
Ronnie Kray died in 1995 aged 61 and his twin Reggie died five years later aged 66.
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The home is set within six acres of grounds, which were once dug up by police
Credit: Bedfords/East Anglia News Service
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The property comes with a number of outbuildings, including its own cottage
Credit: Bedfords/East Anglia News Service
